June 02, 2004

Report From Title IX Seminar: Progress Made, More To Come

FROM THE WINDY CITY—AND ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION—comes the report of a successful Title IX seminar.

NCAA President Myles Brand framed the lofty parameters of the seminar by stating, "I think Title IX is frankly the most important higher education act in the second half of the 20th century."

The two day seminar was held in mid May was the 13th held since 1995. There were 150-plus attendees. Presenters and their topics included:

• Christine Grant, ex Iowa Women's AD: stats on football and men's basketball spending

• Jocelyn Samuels, National Women's Law Center: Title IX compliance

• Denise DeHass, NCAA research staffer: results from gender-equity report

• Maria De Julio, NCAA researcher: discussed changes in EADA forms

Of particular interest was a presentation by Athena Yiamouyiannis from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. She presented highlights of a 27-year study on women in intercollegiate sports entitled: “Women In Intercollegiate Sport: A Longitudinal National Study, Twenty Seven Year Update: 1977-2004.” [Ed. - Results of that study were outlined by College Athletics Clips when it was released in late March. The outline can be found in the Title IX section of Clips.]

Ms. Yiamouyiannis presented the following findings:

• 44.1% of women's teams are coached by women, which has steadily decreased since TitleIX was implemented in 1972.

• 2% percent of men's teams are coached by women.

• There are more female college presidents of Division I-A schools than there are female ADs of Division I-A schools.

• Women hold 34.6% of administrative positions, down from 40% in 2002.

The consensus at the seminar was that much progress has been made in gender equity, but that there is progress that still needs to be made.

(this 285 word excerpt—with added commentary--was reduced from a 1531 word article in The NCAA News of 5-24-04)